What Im saying is people will take a shot at 40yrds or greater broadside, not considering what that deer has the capability of doing..(DUCKING IT JUMPING IT)
But won't consider a shot like charlies alittle let say easier because it can't jump/duck it! I don't know what i would of done to be honest with you!

ORIGINAL: JPH

Are we asking if Charlie 01 should have taken the shot, or if we would take it?

What Im saying is people will take a shot at 40yrds or greater broadside, not considering what that deer has the capability of doing..(DUCKING IT JUMPING IT) But won't consider a shot like charlies alittle let say easier because it can't jump/duck it! I don't know what i would of done to be honest with you!

ORIGINAL: JPH

Are we asking if Charlie 01 should have taken the shot, or if we would take it?

From personal experience.

2006, I had a doe walk right under my stand. I shot straight down on her as she was walking straight away. The arrow entered a few inches to the rt. of her spine and exited a few inches to the rt. of her brisket. One lung, top to bottom. I tracked her for 450 yards, over two days, before I lost the trail for good. I'll never make that mistake again.

2010, I had a doe broadside in an open field. I thought she was at 35 yards. It ended up being 43. My arrow went low and clipped her belly, just behind the pint of her sternum. The shot was actually lined up perfectly but my yardage was off and caused a bad hit. Thankfully, the broadhead opened her up so badly that she was unable to travel very far. I recovered her the next morning after coyotes had taken a whole hindquarter. I now have a lazer rangefinder and will never take another archery shot w/o knowing the distance.

Moral? Both were bad shots but the broadside offered a larger margin for error and I got away with it (kind of). In my opinion, the close range, quartering away shot is the most forgiving shot in deer hunting but a broadside is a close second.

I don't think confidence in your shooting ability should be a free pass for taking marginal shots. There was a good outcome "this time", & I'm glad it was, but you can not expect the same results every time. Did anyone read the article on one lung shots in D&DH? A deer can live a long time with one lung. This type of shot is either a spine or one lung (at best) shot.

I don't lack confidence in my shooting ability, but I do lack the confidence of a happy ending with a straight away shot. That's why I (personal choice) would not take it.

I beg to differ. Some years ago I shot a buck broadside that I never recoverd. I believe it was a one lung hit. He was shot in an alfalpa field then ran to a standing cornfield. I found my arrow and went to where I saw him enter the corn. Buy then it was dark. When I got to the edge of the corn, I found a pool of foamy blood about the size of a dinner plate. He had coughed up this blood. It was not splatered. It was as if someone had poured it there. That told me it was a lung hit. Rater than mess things up, I decided to come back in the AM. The cornfield was maybe 100yds wide with a hugh cattail swamp on the other side. There were no weeds between the rows and I could follow his track in the soft earth. He was traveling accross the rows and just walking. Through that whole area that he walked, I found two little specks of blood, and they were some 50ft appart, and about elbow high, thinking they came from nose or mouth It would be hard to miss any blood on those corn stalks and leaves. Looked as much as I could in the cattails and no more blood. Disapointing,very, and it was a standing broadside hit. To this day I cannot understand what exactly happend. It was not a pass thru. And why was there no amount of blood from the entry wound. Seems to me, that should have showed up in the corn. As we know it,"things happen".

With that walking away shot, that is the third deer taken that way.

I should tell the story about a bowhunter that shot a buck in the hoof, and got it. I would not have believed it, had I not had been there when he retrieved it and saw where he shot it. I think he said it was his first deer. It dosen't make any difference, but he shot it on a public hunting site. I give him credit. He said he tracked it for two days, till it finally expired. Go figure.

What Im saying is people will take a shot at 40yrds or greater broadside, not considering what that deer has the capability of doing..(DUCKING IT JUMPING IT) But won't consider a shot like charlies alittle let say easier because it can't jump/duck it! I don't know what i would of done to be honest with you!

[:o] Oh come on Mike ... you? You would have leaped off that 30' tower stand, wrastled that deer to the ground & then performed the Coup de Grace with that Jim Bowie knife you had in your teeth all along. [:@]

Did anyone read the article on one lung shots in D&DH? A deer can live a long time with one lung. This type of shot is either a spine or one lung (at best) shot.

I'm glad bowtechian mentioned this because I was about to quote the same article. I was surprised to learn this information and coupled with my first experince a few seasons ago where my shot placement was questionable..it was clear to me deer are extremely resiliant animals. I think understanding that now is why I passed previously on a shot like that and will continue to do so.